Does Religion Have a Future? Flip a Coin!

I have friends and family who have been predicting the demise
of religion for a long time. One of them recently asked me what kinds of
students could possibly have an interest in studying about religion in
any form, given all the bad publicity about religious organizations. In
our spirited conversation, I realized that my friend, who was hurt
several times in his youth by religious leaders,
is only able to see one side of the religious “coin” because of his
experiences. He sees the scandals, hypocrisies, ignorance, and
mean-spiritedness that is too often associated with religious believers
and their organizations; and he has a homing device for catching the
inconsistencies between the stated and lived religious values of many
people professing a religious faith.

My friend believes he has history and current events on his side. He
is quick to point out Christianity’s long history of complicity with
violence, oppression, and misogyny and he has followed closely two
recent controversies: the Catholic sex abuse cover-up and the revelation
that four out of five Evangelicals are now voting for U.S. politicians
with proven records of immorality and even documented illegal behaviors.
In addition, he knows that this unholy mix of religion, bad acting and
politics is not just an American phenomenon. The Orthodox Church has
been linked with Russian efforts to destabilize the Balkans,
particularly those nations seeking to join the NATO alliance, like
Montenegro and Macedonia, and Judaism is criticized regularly for
fomenting the diminishment or even dehumanization of Palestinians and
Arabs in and around the Jewish state of Israel. Islam, of course, is the
religious bogeyman, condemned for having members that embrace
terrorism, and even followers of the peace-centered religious traditions
of Buddhism and Hinduism are lampooned for the violent extremists in
their own ranks, particularly in nations like Sri Lanka and India.

There is undeniable truth to this description of one side of the
religion “coin.” But, there is another side to the coin that holds an
equal truth that eludes my friend. Religion has been like gum stuck on
the sole of the human shoe, because people of every generation find
meaning, purpose, motivation, and direction in and through the rituals,
traditions, and teachings of religious traditions. More importantly, the
other side of the religion coin opens doorways to sets of relationships
that collectively create the possibility of re-imagining one’s
interpretation of creation and the human condition. It offers an
“imaginary,” in the words of philosopher Charles Taylor, that can become
drenched in hope, kindness, solidarity, forgiveness, reconciliation,
and the kind of love that makes room for the possibility of human connectivity that transcends all divisions.

For
more than half a century, many professors teaching students about
religion have been engaged in an on-going debate about the nature of
religious belief and practice. The debate has criticized the so-called World Religions Paradigm,
the most common way most educators have approached teaching religion.
This paradigm believes that there are “great” historic religious
traditions, such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and the way
to teach people about them is to explain each religion’s doctrines and
dogmas, rituals, and practices. If a student knows these, they have some
sense of what makes people tick who follow those religious traditions.

In the 1960s, William Cantwell Smith, a Canadian professor of
comparative religion, argued that thinking about religion as information
to share with people misses the whole point. Religion has all
these things, and they have a certain level of importance, but
ultimately religion is about relationships, he insisted. Religion is
about helping people to understand how to relate to God, a Higher Power,
or maybe just a Higher Purpose. This understanding of religion is about
human relationships with each other, the way we engage and accept one
another as companions on the human journey, despite our many
differences. A religion of relationships also emphasizes relating to the
environment, to the earth and dust from which we come and return, and
all of the animate and inanimate beings sharing space in the universe.
Lastly, this idea of religion, particularly in its mystical forms, is
all about learning to relate with compassion, acceptance, and discipline
to the fragmented pieces of our own human spirit, and to know
experientially that our deepest connection to each other is through our
shared brokenness.

This is the other side of the religious coin, the clarifying,
sensitizing and liberating form of religion, and every fall Seattle
University’ School of Theology and Ministry welcomes a motivated, bright
and idealistic group of students who want to explore this side of the
coin.

I marvel at the pathways many of these students have walked, the
hurdles they have climbed, and the disappointments and disillusionments
they have endured before crossing through the doorway of our school.
Some have already overcome obstacles that would have crushed the spirit
of others, and have quietly made contributions to human flourishing that
would dwarf the efforts of those receiving laurels. They are
testimonials to generosity, humility and the indomitable spirit of the
human mind and heart to live more fully aware and more fully alive
because it is right, not because anyone notices.

Our students are motivated to study with us for an assortment of more
immediate reasons. Some are preparing to lead congregations; others to
become leaders in faith-based organizations, particularly in the social
service and social justice sectors, working on issues like homelessness,
immigration, prison reform, or restorative justice; still others want
to serve as counselors, with a special sensitivity to spirituality and
faith as a resource for mental health; and some seek to become chaplains
in hospitals, the military, prisons, police departments or industry.
Every year, we also have students who come back to school because they
have discerned this is a step they must take in their life journey, even
though they are uncertain about the next step. There is also an
emerging group seeking education to bring a “ministerial consciousness”
or “spiritually awakened” sensitivity to leadership in institutions of
education, government, and industry.

This mélange of educational goals among our students is complemented
by other important forms of diversity. For several years, the school has
had an increasing level of pluralism in religious or spiritual
backgrounds. Our wildly different students join an educational
environment that swims against the tide of the polarized politics,
religion, and culture wars that has been releasing poison into the lives
of our organizations and societies for three or four decades. We have
students coming from every imaginable Christian tradition – from Roman
Catholic, Episcopalian and Lutheran to United Church of Christ,
Presbyterian, and Pentecostal – as well as women and men with
backgrounds in Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, not to mention spiritual
seekers, and even agnostics and atheists. The students also come from
many different cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, disparate
educational backgrounds (from business and law to healthcare and liberal
arts) and various socioeconomic backgrounds (from financially
comfortable to living at or below the poverty line). Lastly, our
students are an intergenerational group, with ages ranging from the
early 20s to the mid-70s, bringing thousands of years of human
experience into every academic year.

What could such different people with varying interests find in
common? Although they might not readily recognize these common patterns
in themselves, over the past few years I have noticed that our students
share a hunger for something “more” in their life. They seem to intuit
that exploring the ebb and flow of spirituality, faith-informed ethics,
and the good side of the religious coin provides the gateway to a unique
form of human wisdom: a wisdom designed to help people find something
“bigger” than themselves. Our students seek a wisdom grounded in ideas,
perspectives, and practices, but also the resources needed to develop
the courage, strength, and skills to devote their lives to layers of
relationships to which we must attend if we truly seek to leave a mark
on our world. They want to heal the broken places in creation; they want
to inspire others to live in an impregnable hope that can stand against
even insurmountable odds; and, they are eager to set others on fire
with a vision and passion for creating a more just and humane world.

Although they might talk about it differently, our students realize
that they will come to this place of generous service and a more deeply
rooted identity in the midst of a world of growing plurality precisely
through their study of the other side of the religious “coin,” a process
that will help them to not only understand the other side of the coin
but to become it for others. They will learn the wisdom of a young, precocious teenage African-American poet, Frederick J.B. Moore II:

To change the world your heart has to be into it you can’t half step what you door everything will fall apart …

to change the world you need a foundation behind you that will encourage you to keep pushing the world when you’re broken and exhausted

to change the world your first step has to be yourself because you are the greatest catalyst for change

This is the good side of the religious coin my friend just can’t see,
but millions across the world hunger to encounter and always will, even
when the forms of religious institutional structures change and come
and go, even when a religious tradition gets swamped in a moral crisis
that highlights the negative so much it renders the positive invisible.
Ironically, an era of vast political ineptitude and disintegration makes
the good side of the coin more attractive to people who are looking for
something more enduring and transcendent.

Does religion have a future? Flip a coin. But, make sure you are looking at both sides.